Azerbaijan, Armenia trade barbs at UN over Lachin corridor to Karabakh region

By Betul Yuruk

UNITED NATIONS (AA) - Azerbaijan and Armenia traded barbs at the United Nations on Tuesday over a corridor Armenia has been using to access the Karabakh region.

Armenia's UN Envoy Mher Margaryan accused Azerbaijan of ''illegally blocking'' the Lachin corridor and ''denying humanitarian access'' to a region with an Armenian population, a claim Baku strongly denies.

He called on Azerbaijan ''to immediately and unconditionally'' unblock the corridor and urged the UN Security Council to deploy a fact-finding mission to assess the humanitarian situation on the ground.

Azerbaijan's UN Ambassador Yashar Aliyev accused Armenia of exploiting the UN Security Council for ''manipulation, distortion and falsification'' at the meeting called by Yerevan.

He said Armenia was ''misusing'' the corridor for ''illicit trafficking'' of minerals and other resources and military activities.

''In addition to being illegal per se, these activities cause serious damage to the environment, polluting the area and destroying the fragile ecosystem,'' he said.

He said the abuse of the corridor constitutes a breach of the trilateral agreements between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia.

''The United Nations, which is neither present in the Lachin corridor nor in the areas under the mandate of the Russian peacekeepers, is not in a position to verify or confirm these various claims and allegations,'' said Miroslav Jenca, UN assistant secretary-general for political affairs.

US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said they were ''deeply concerned'' by the ongoing impediments to use of the Lachin corridor

''Impediments to the use of the Lachin corridor set back the peace process,'' he said. ''We call on the government of Azerbaijan and others responsible for the corridor’s security to restore free movement, including for humanitarian and commercial use, as soon as possible.''

Russia's deputy UN envoy Anna Evstigneeva called on both countries to exercise restraint and refrain from steps that could increase the degree of tension.

''We proceed from the premise that all disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan should be resolved exclusively by political and diplomatic means, and as far as border issues are concerned, within the framework of the work of the bilateral commission on the delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border with the advisory assistance of Russia,'' she said.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

In the fall of 2020, in 44 days of fighting, Azerbaijan liberated several cities, villages and settlements from Armenian occupation. The Russian-brokered peace agreement is celebrated as a triumph in Azerbaijan.​​​​​​​

Since then, Russian peacekeeping troops have been deployed in the region.